Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-09-17
AN AFRICAN EXECUTION.
BISHOP TAYLOR'S ADVENTURES IN
THE CONGO STATE.
Novel Horrors Connected with the Pun
ishment of a Native CriminaI-A Medi-
turing a Victim.

fshment OF q Native Criminal-A Medi-
cine Mans Test for wItchcraft-Tor-
turing a Victim.
Two or three weeks before the bishops ar
rival a man died in the village, and, as is fire.
quently the case, the medicine man had been
summoned to declare what or rather who had
been the cause of it. The doctor, after the
usual demonstrations, oracular utterances,
frenzied dancing and other tomfoolery, had
fixed the responsibility for the death upon a
captain of the tribe. The truth undoubtedly
was that this captain had done something to
offend the doctor, who took this way of get
ting even. The captain was brought before
the king and charged with the crime of be-
witching the deceased He denied the charge
and was then ordered to drink cup of kind
OF tea made from the sasswood tree. 1t is a
deadly poisonous mixture The medicine
men tell the king that if a man who is guilty
drinks of it, he will die; but an innocent man
will not be harmed Whoever drinks of
course dies immediately in terrible agony,
and the prestige of the doctor is heightened
accordingly.
The captain in this instance refused to
drink the tea. He was sent away from the
further consideration of the case, but that
very night he was shot by an unknown man
in his house After six days of suffering the
captain died. His friends besought the repre-
sentative of the free state government to in
terfere, but he hesitated. He was new to his
position and dared not take very decided
measures So the king of the tribe has be-
stirred himself The dead captain had been
So, y.fl a
tor had disturbed his majesty. Now that the
captain had been murdered he determined to
punish the criminal A man was arrested
and tried for the crime and found guilty.
He was, of course, condemned to death.
A NOVEL PUNISHMENT.
When the bishop arrived the hole in the
| market place had been completed 1t
was somewhat large and deeper than an
| ordinary grave. The object that had Mt
| tracted the attention of half of the crowd
was the condemned man himself. He sat
on the ground with his hands tied be-
hind his back. Seven feet in front of
| him was a young tree that had been
bent toward him. The top of the
| tree had been cut away, so that fork made
| by the two main branches remained on the
| slender trunk. The condemned mans neck
| was put in this fork and the ends Of the line
were made fast behind his head. The tension
| Of the tree kept a constant strain on his
throat, not enough to strange him, but
| enough to be painful and to prevent him
| from making any motion. He had been sit
| ting thus for hours watching the preparations
| for his execution and enduring the gaze of
| hundreds of the villagers. Not far away the
| king, dressed in a gorgeously coloret robe,
| sat experimenting the operations. The work
| progressed in due order, but without the
| ceremonious solemnity that characterizeS an
| execution in Christian countries The King
| gave his Instructions when he chose to int a
| fere to subordinate, who transferred them 10
| the captain in charge Of the workers at the
hole
When the diggers climbed out and laid aside
their shovels there was slight pause, and the
| crowd gathered closer 60 the excavation.
| Presently the king uttered a command in
| loud voice and several subordnates actually
| began the work of execution They first cut
off the tree in front of the captives neck,
leaving the pronfgs of the fork still tied ehout
him He was led to the hole and ORDERED into
it. Up to this time he had preserved n stoical
expression, but at that moment he weakened
I 3
ward the king and looked all around him
| wildly One of the executioners fastened
matters by pushing him into the hole He
fell in heap on the bottom, and three men
went in after him. They placed him on his
feet and while one held him steady the others
began to pack dirt about bis feet The work
men left ON the brink of the hole carefully
shoveled the earth that had been dug up back
again. and the men inside continued the pack
ing process.
| PERFECTLY HORRIBLE,
The victim writhed and screamed terribly
as the work proceeded, and a gag was inserted
| in his mouth to still his cries The people
| with morbid curiosity crowded to the edge Of
the hole, even to the point Of interfering with
the workrlen, and a squad Of warriors in
armor drove them back The men in the
hole stamped the earth hard all about the
victim until it was up 20 his waist. They
then got out and the filling in continued more
rapidly, and others helped in the stamping
The hole was originally SO deep that the vie
tins head was more than a foot below the
surface When his mouth WAS reached care
was taken not to fill in around him until the
rest of the hole had been leveled over Then
a few shovelfuls thrown upon the head effect
ually buried the poor fellow, but the work
men were still cautious to note exactly where
the head was
After all the dirt had been thrown back
and the burial was complete the reason for
their caution became apparent A workman
came forward with long, hard wood pole
sharpened and tipped with iron at one end
This was inserted into the ground directly
over the victims head. A movable platform
was produced and men standing ON it began
TO pound the pole down into the ground The
horrible object OF this was to transfix tue
victim through the length Of his body. The
pounding was continued with malets until
the entire length of the pole had been driven
into the ground. Then the inn dement's that
had been used were taken away and the
crowd dispersed.
Much depressed by this lugubrious spectacle
the bishop and his companions resumed their
journey to Stanley pool-Africa Cor Globe
Democrat.
Jay Gould as a Human Barometer.
| Law GnuII MIGHT ba ca1la1 fha larauata,